Outdoor Adventure Living-Learning Community Offers Once-in-a-Lifetime Excursions
Baylor University’s first-year experiences for students, along with its residential learning communities, rank among some of the best in the nation. In the U.S. News & World Report 2026 Best Colleges rankings, Baylor placed No. 4 for first-year experiences and No. 9 for its learning communities.
For students who desire to live in residence with peers and faculty who share common interests, Baylor offers seven Living-Learning Communities (LLC). The Outdoor Adventure LLC, in particular, is a special place for many students to experience community, find friends, and further their faith through their passion for spending time outside. It offers unique opportunities to learn hobbies like climbing, backpacking, and mountain biking, and students practice these new skills on trips that can last anywhere from one day to one week at a time. David Copeland, Program Director of Outdoor Adventure LLC, explained the community’s core values are relationships, resilience, responsibility, and rest.
“Everything that we’re doing is moving in those four directions,” he stated.
Relationships
For students accepted to the Outdoor Adventure LLC, they find home on the fourth floor of Penland Hall—all majors, classifications, and nature hobbies are welcome. Quickly, students develop deep relationships through the program’s common experiences and conversations.
Carys Walters, a pre-Business freshman, recalls her unforgettable experience of participating in the Outdoor Adventure Baylor Line Camp. During this seven-day opportunity, Walters backpacked in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado—before the start of Baylor’s Welcome Week and start of the school year—allowing her to connect and build relationships with her future community members.
“It completely shaped my whole freshman year, in the best way possible,” she said. “I came in not really knowing a ton of people at Baylor. That backpacking trip got me immediately plugged in.”
Resilience
“Resilience is further developed in a student’s life through engaging in challenges, learning that it’s okay to fail, and it’s okay to pick yourself back up,” Copeland explained.
Jessica Potts, an Education senior, is currently living her third year in the Outdoor Adventure LLC. After completing her first year, she loved the community so much that she decided to return where she served as a team leader for the various trips throughout the year. This year, Potts returned once again, now serving as a mountain biking instructor for her peers.
“Of course, there’s been challenges along the way, but coming to a place where I could really be nurtured in my faith and where people were passionate about the same things that I was—that was just huge for me,” she said. “I grew so much my freshman year because of the people I was around. The positivity and joy they had really marked my first year.”
Responsibility
Potts can also attest to the many leadership and career-shaping opportunities the learning community provided her. The leadership positions she held as a team leader and instructor helped her to develop and foster the skills she will be utilizing in her future career working in education. Potts said Copeland’s ability to delegate tasks to student leaders and allow them to foster their sense of responsibility was crucial.
“I think, especially in the outdoor industry, a lot of things can go wrong. It’s really easy to want to take control and Director Copeland is so good at releasing control and letting us figure things out on our own and stepping in when necessary. This program has been such a launching off point in setting me up for future career opportunities,” she said.
Rest
The final pillar of the Outdoor Adventure LLC is rest, which Copeland explained as, “engaging in something different that’s away from the stress of college—get outside and enjoy God’s creation and sit in that rest and that solitude that exists there.”
Residents of the learning community are high academic achievers in the classroom. Day trips and week-long excursions allow them the opportunity to take a break from academics but continue to develop their character through fellowship and adventures in new environments. Anderson Gillett, a Performance Studies sophomore and student leader in the Outdoor Adventure LLC, found group excursions helped him achieve this core value, one that is often overlooked in society.
“One of my favorite trips was rock climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas,” he recalled. “It’s one of the Fall Break trips that our community does, and I’ve been able to go on it two times now, and it’s just amazing. It’s beautiful and it’s such a perfect and mindfully restful break from classes.”
Adventure with a Purpose
Beyond faith, core values, fun, and community, the Outdoor Adventure LLC offers a unique opportunity for students: to further combine their love for the outdoors with their passion for academics by selecting to major or minor in Recreation and Leisure Services. Offered through the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation, the Recreation and Leisure Services degree program equips students for careers across the recreation spectrum.
Through a variety of concentrations, like Community Sport, Outdoor Recreation, Recreation Ministry, the degree allows students to specialize in their outdoor passions, along with giving back to the local community and connecting them through activities. This opens up opportunities for students to work in different careers like working in state and national parks, recreational and professional sports operations, and tourism operations.
“The degree is versatile. You can learn a lot about yourself and meet a lot of other people through this program—and that can be applied to any career,” Copeland explained.
Riley Herbert, a senior who is studying Outdoor Recreation, reflected on how living in the Outdoor Adventure LLC added to her degree journey. Immersive activities challenged her to grow in a capacity beyond what any classroom could offer. This helped contribute to her career goals of one day owning and operating her own camp ministry program.
“Living in the learning community added so much depth to my degree journey,” she remarked. “It gave me hands-on experience with outdoor skills that I had never been exposed to before, and it allowed me to grow beyond the classroom. While classes during my freshman and sophomore years built a strong academic foundation, the LLC gave me the chance to apply what I was learning—in meaningful, real-world situations.”
Herbert chose the Recreation and Leisure Services major because she knew it was the “perfect fit.”
“I believe God placed this passion for camp ministry in my heart for a purpose, and I felt called to pursue it—living in this community only strengthened that passion. It deepened my appreciation for nature and reminded me why I love this field so much,” she expressed. “Being surrounded by God’s creation every day made me realize that this is exactly where I’m meant to be. I believe there is no better ‘office’ than the great outdoors.”
Complementarily, the Outdoor Adventure LLC and the Recreation and Leisure Services degree programs provide Baylor students with a love for the outdoors to be able to cultivate this passion into a future career. Additionally, it provides students with a strong community—especially as they enter into their first year at the University. This helps to build bonds that extend beyond the residential community, and allows students to develop a strong sense of pouring back into any community they become involved in. Baylor’s unique recipe to incorporate academic opportunities outside of the classroom, while simultaneously providing students with real-world experiences, enriches their time at college.
ABOUT ROBBINS COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Established in 2014, Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences seeks to enhance health, quality of life, and human flourishing for all individuals and communities through education, research, and innovation. It includes seven academic departments—Communication Sciences and Disorders; Health, Human Performance, and Recreation; Human Sciences and Design; Occupational Therapy; Physical Therapy; Physician Assistant Studies; and Public Health. Robbins College offers 13 bachelor’s degrees, 10 master’s degrees, and six doctoral degrees, as well as nine graduate programs in partnership with the U.S. Army. Graduate programs in Robbins College are offered in a variety of modalities, including on campus, online, and hybrid.